The much-awaited report on the Arizona election audit is delayed as members of the auditing team are sick with COVID-19.
As per The Blaze, three members of the Cyber Ninjas auditing team were infected with COVID-19 and have caused a delay in the release of the election audit report on Maricopa County that was supposedly scheduled on Monday.
"Today we are receiving a portion of the draft report from the election audit analysis team. The team expected to have the full draft ready for the Senate today, but unfortunately Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and two other members of the five-person audit team tested positive for COVID-19 and are quite sick," Arizona Senate President Karen Fann said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fann also disclosed that the full draft report would have to be revised to incorporate the pending analysis for the ballot envelope images that they have been waiting for from Maricopa County but only arrived last week. Despite the draft still being incomplete, she said the Arizona Senate would nevertheless begin reviewing its contents following a process that ensures its "accuracy" prior to its public release.
"In addition to the illnesses, it wasn't until Thursday that the Senate received the images of the ballot envelopes from Maricopa County and are hoping to have those analyzed as soon as possible to incorporate those results into the final report," Fann revealed.
"The Senate legal team will meet Wednesday to start reviewing the draft report, and when the remainder of the draft is submitted, the Senate team will hold another meeting to continue checking for accuracy, clarity, and proof of documentation of findings. Once that is complete, the final report will be presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee and finding released to the public," she added.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Statement from Senate President @FannKfann #AZSenate #Audit pic.twitter.com/H7xDHdRiK3
"” AZSenateRepublicans (@AZSenateGOP) August 23, 2021
The Arizona election audit was completed in July 28, particularly the third count of the ballots, through the supervision of former Arizona Republican Party Chair Randy Pullen. Fann was also the one who announced the said completion.
As reported previously, the first count was conducted by the Cyber Ninja team and involved 2.1 million ballots. The recount was done by the Maricopa County officials but their results were a mismatch to that reported by the Cyber Ninja team. The Arizona Senate Republicans attorney then advised for a third set of the auditing to offset the mismatch.
The audit lasted for four months, and the ballots that were housed at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum during the audit have been returned to Maricopa County's Elections Department, AZCentral reported.
Despite the final analysis on the audit not being complete, Arizona Senator Wendy Rogers has already launched a campaign to decertify the 2020 Presidential Election results early this month. Rogers said the results warrant a decertification following a "display of evidence" from the audit.
But Fann, as per AZCentral, have stressed previously that the aim of the audit is not to overturn election results but to ensure the election integrity. In addition, Fann said the audit will provide them a way to examine election procedures that lawmakers can review to pass laws related to election.
Meanwhile, Politico reported that Arizona Secretary of State criticized the audit for being "secretive and disorganized" and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer question the credibility of the reviewers.
